Never Alone

Chapter 20

Chapter Twenty

"Don't get off your horses until I can help," Scott said as he swung his body down from his mount. "Watching you city-slickers walk funny after that ride is my entertainment."

"How long have you been riding?" Ken asked as Scott brought the step stool back over to his horse.

"Since I was old enough to walk." Scott held Ken's horse steady as Ken carefully dismounted. "How about you?"

"Same." Ken looked proud. It was a look I hadn't seen on him. He ran his hand along the side of his horse and then began to undo the saddle, using the animal's strong body to help hold him up as he worked the leather through the buckles.

Scott moved on to help the others dismount. Damien followed up Ken's question with one of his own. "Do you come from a family of farmers or something?"

"Ranchers. My ancestors bought and raised steer when they first came to America. I don't do much ranching anymore, but I have lots of my grandfather's stories." Scott smiled as he helped Damien off his horse and then he chuckled as Damien limped, his groin sore and his legs tight from clamping them around his horse's belly.

"Are there more groups coming today?" Shima asked. Scott helped steady her as she slipped from the saddle.

"One more. A small group of seniors." He smiled and looked over to the stable and I imagined he was already thinking about which horses he would assign to each member. I felt a pang of disappointment that our time there was done.

"Don't you get tired of being on a horse for so long?" Shima used a hair band from her pocket to tie her hair off her face.

"That wasn't long," he said with a soft laugh. "I actually do competitive riding."

"What's that?" she asked.

"There are races that challenge your endurance on horseback. Sometimes I'm on a horse for up to fifteen hours a day." He moved on to Aideen and carefully helped her from her saddle.

"Don't the horses get tired?" Shima ran her palm along the dark brown hide of the horse in front of her.

"Sure. You have to let them rest and make sure they're taken care of. Back when my great-great-grandfather was riding, he rode his horse across the country in just a few weeks." Scott stood next to Marco's horse, but didn't make a move to help him down. With a nod, Marco slid from the saddle and straightened up when his feet hit the packed dirt.

"What?" Marco asked as if he hadn't heard him correctly. "How did he ride a horse across the country? Weren't there roads and places horses weren't allowed?"

"Sure," Scott said with a nod. "He had to take a few detours, but back then the roads and cities weren't anything like the ones you live in now. There were farms and small towns, wide open spaces and kinder communities." He stepped aside and let Marco's horse past so he could get to the water. "He would work for a few hours at the farms he ran into to earn a little money or maybe to board for the night, then on nights when it was cool enough and he wasn't too tired, he'd ride in the evening. It would give his horse all day to rest."

"I can't even imagine that," Ken said as he lowered himself back into the wheelchair. "I bet your great-great-grandfather's body was tired and sore. I don't know how he had the strength to get back on that horse day after day."

"He was young," Scott answered. "Maybe only a year or two older than you. He wanted out of his small town and more opportunities than he could find there. Sometimes you outgrow the place you were born. It doesn't mean you don't respect it, or stop loving where you came from, it just means your dreams are bigger than the city limits. He had to leave so he could make his own way. Had he stayed there, he would never have known if he was unhappy because the town wanted a future for him that he didn't want for himself, or if it was really something inside his mind that didn't allow for any joy to come through."